Our apartment is on the ground floor of a triplex in the ever-evolving neighbourhood of Verdun. We probably visited about 30 apartments in the area before falling in love with this one. We were looking for a place that was pretty spacious because we both work from home and would be spending the majority of our time in the space. We also wanted to find a place with a little backyard for our newly adopted pup Nori to run around. This building has all of that, plus original wood floors, unpainted woodwork and tons of historical character.

(Image credit: Submitted by Savannah)

When we moved in, the place was a bit of a disaster. Because we knew we wanted to settle in here for the next few years, we put in a lot more work than we typically would in a rental. Mike spent days patching up all of the cracks in the walls and ceiling and changing all the light fixtures. The apartment is pretty much the opposite of open concept so we decided to remove all of the doors except the one to our bedroom (and bathroom of course) to make the space feel more open. We painted every single wall as well as the kitchen cabinets. We also added hardware to the kitchen because there wasn't any when we got here.

(Image credit: Submitted by Savannah)

The things we're most proud of in our home are the pieces of furniture that we build ourselves (okay Mike did most of the building but I helped!). Our dining table, wall of bookshelves and coffee table were all built from scratch using inexpensive lumber.

(Image credit: Submitted by Savannah)

I'm also happy that we managed to create little spaces devoted to the things we love. The wall of books, the record nook, and the wall to display my photography make the living room feel like a gallery of our favorite things.

(Image credit: Submitted by Savannah)

Mixing our two styles was a challenge because I lean more towards a clean, modern Scandinavian aesthetic and Mike prefers antique pieces with lots of history behind them. I think after some compromising we managed to blend our different tastes in every room.